Alongside the author’s allusion to Genesis 1 can be found an allusion to the flood narrative. Specifically, there are allusions to Genesis 6:7 (and its parallel in Genesis 7:23), where God had said to Noah, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land [earth], man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens.” Zephaniah follows the same de-creation order as in the flood narrative, with the exception that he adds sea creatures to the list—which is an indication that the scope of the judgment is even more extensive than that at the flood because now fish are also to be involved (see also Hosea 4:3).
By alluding to the flood narrative in this way, the prophet is making plain that the time of the post-flood world order will end, just as the days of the pre-flood order came to an end. The author thus puts the focus of the judgment on the final judgment at the great day of the Lord (Zephaniah 1:7).1
3 “I will sweep away man and beast; I will sweep away the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, and the rubble with the wicked. I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth,” declares the LORD.